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Rugby League

Wigan slump again

14/05/2006

Wigan Warriors are in deep trouble at the bottom of the Super League after they slumped to a narrow 10-8 defeat to Wakefield at Belle Vue.

The home side, who were also struggling near the foot of the table, claimed a precious two points and are now six points ahead of Brian Noble's men.

The Wigan head coach had called on his players to stop feeling sorry for themselves prior to the game and his side seemed to respond with a solid first-half display.

However, they fell behind on 28 minutes when Sam Obst kicked a loose ball towards the line and Ryan Atkins dived onto it.

To their credit, the visitors picked themselves back up and were level at 6-6 before the half-time hooter when Iafeta Paleaaesina touched down for the Warriors.

They then took the lead with a Danny Tickle penalty early in the second-half before Wakefield regained the lead on 53 minutes when Jason Demetriou went over.

Wigan tried desperately to get back into the game but poor kicking let them down on many occasions.

Pat Richards looked to have given the Warriors an unlikely win when he scored with just two minutes remaining.

However, the video referee called that the ball had been knocked on and the try was disallowed, leaving Wigan staring at another defeat.

In the day's other game, Bradford Bulls thumped Harlequins RL 58-16 at the Stoop to move up to third place in the Super League table.

The Bulls ran in ten tries overall to Harlequins' three as they dominated for long period of the game.

Shontayne Hape, Andy Lynch and Lesley Vainikolo all scored twice, while Paul Deacon kicked nine out of ten goals to move Bradford to within one point of Leeds.

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